


The Locomotion

by Kerkerian



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Coda to S09e07, Fix-It of Sorts, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Missing Scene, Romance, Some Fluff, mcdanno, slight angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-11
Updated: 2018-11-11
Packaged: 2019-08-22 04:50:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16591133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kerkerian/pseuds/Kerkerian
Summary: Coda to one scene of the 200th episode. More inside because I don't want to post any spoilers here.





	The Locomotion

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own Five-0.
> 
> I haven't seen the new season yet, therefore this is based solely on what I've seen on Tumblr. Do not read on if you don't want any spoilers.
> 
> Summary:  
> The decision to not continue with the restaurant has some not-so-unexpected consequences for Steve and Danny.

 

When Danny comes home that night, he's so relieved that he plunks onto his couch and sags into the cushions bonelessly. Well, okay, yeah, he's more than a little buzzed too, which is why he took a cab home, but mostly, it's relief that is making itself known. A tiny bit of melancholy as well, understandably, but if he's honest, the past months made it very clear that neither he nor Steve are actually cut out to run a restaurant. The pleasant parts, yes, but Danny, despite being a realist, seriously underestimated all the bureaucracy and how complicated things which seemed simple from the outside could be.

Well, at least he tried. _They_ tried. And it _was_ beautiful and passionate for a while. But he's been lying awake again recently, not worrying about Steve for a change but worrying about this mutual business venture, wondering if they had made the right choice. If it really was what they wanted to do for the rest of their lives, and if they'd like the change it was going to bring. So when Steve had put that exact same concern into words, Danny had felt a tremendous weight being lifted off his shoulders.

He laughs softly, putting his feet up on the coffee table: Steve was so squirrelly and anxious when he told him that he wanted out, it was downright cute.

“Stevie,” he mutters fondly, closing his eyes.

 

Half an hour later, he opens them again, startled to find his partner staring at him in the dim light of the one small lamp that is lit: “What the-”

“Sorry,” Steve hurries to say. “I kinda broke in.”

“I can see that.” Danny pushes himself into a more upright position. “Something wrong?”

There it is, Steve's all squirrelly again. He fidgets, opening and closing his mouth a few times as if unsure what to say next.

Danny tilts his head: “Babe?”

At that, Steve stills, taking a deep breath: “You can't die from a bullet.”

Taken aback, Danny frowns: “Yes, you can, as we both very well know.”

Steve shakes his head: “I didn't mean it can't kill someone. I meant... I can't have you dying from a bullet.”

“Er...”

“Or at all.” Steve looks down at his feet. Or maybe his knees.

Danny's expression softens: “Where is this coming from, Babe?”

Steve shrugs minutely: “What you said earlier, that you'd rather die from a bullet than from the stress of running Steve's.” He is still avoiding Danny's gaze: “I kept thinking about it, and it freaked me out.”

Danny reaches out, touches Steve's chin: “Will you look at me?”

Hesitantly, Steve does. His expression is a mixture of defiance and helplessness, immediately melting Danny's heart.

“Goof,” he says softly while his hand now wanders over Steve's jaw and cups his neck. “It's just something I said.”

“Did we make the right decision though?” This comes out all rushed.

“Yes,” Danny therefore says firmly. “The restaurant business: nice, but not for us. Catching bad guys and blowing things up: very much up our alley. Well, the blowing things up is mostly yours, but... you catch my drift.”

Steve still looks uncertain.

Danny gently strokes the soft skin of his neck with his thumb: “Steve?”

Steve nods, but he sounds weary when he talks next: “I thought what's most important is us being together. And I really love my job. But... we've had so many close shaves already, Danno. What if one day, it's too close?”

Danny doesn't have an answer to that. It admittedly was one of the reasons for him to consider retiring in the first place, after all. And yet. He can't imagine not being a cop anymore, especially after the past months.

“There's only one thing I can think of right now,” he eventually says.

Steve looks up: “And what's that?”

“We can't know what will happen,” Danny says slowly. His heart is beating almost painfully fast now because somehow, Steve set something in motion just now, something that's been a long time coming. “But if we take into consideration everything that already did happen, I'd say... the only thing we can change is to spend more time together.”

Steve frowns: “Aren't we already doing that?”

Danny's expression is unreadable now: “Not at night.”

Steve stares at him. Somewhere, a clock seems to be ticking very loudly all of a sudden, accompanying Danny's rapidly beating heart.

“Erm,” Steve says. “I... you mean...”

Danny's thumb stills, and immediately, Steve misses the gentle caress.

“I mean,” Danny says softly, hesitantly; “that there may be more to the constant need to be in each other's company. The jibes. The... love we already have.”

Slowly, Steve nods: “Yeah,” he agrees in an equally low voice. “Maybe.”

“When you told me you wanted out- you had to know I wasn't going to keep at it alone, right?”

Steve actually blushes.

The corners of Danny's mouth quirk up ever so slightly: “You made such a fuss about me possibly retiring when we first talked about it, and then... more stuff happened which made us want to stick together.” His gaze roams over Steve's face: “Tell me I'm not wrong when I say that we'd have stayed friends despite me retiring and you still running Five-0.”

“Of course we'd have.”

“And yet we kept seeking more.”

They are silent for a while. Eventually, Steve, who's been crouching all this time, slides onto the couch next to Danny: “I've always felt drawn to you,” he almost whispers, his voice deep and gravelly. “But I'm not... gay.”

Danny snorts, but it's half-hearted. Steve's proximity is overwhelming, and Danny has kept pushing him away for so long that it's very heady to talk about these things. He's felt more than just friendship for Steve for most of their time together, and he's always been able to control it, file it away under Things That Can't Happen, has sought distraction in other people. Since his heart wasn't in it, all of his past relationships went spectacularly wrong, but at least he managed to make people think he was trying. Not ruining his friendship with Steve was as important as his kids, after all. And it wasn't always easy.

Now he thinks that all the banter, the bickering and the more serious arguments may have been caused by all the pent-up tension between them, even though neither of them wanted to see it. Which means that Steve felt similarly, despite his ongoing thing with Catherine and whoever came after that. And went away again. And isn't this another thing they've got in common?

So maybe, now that the restaurant is off the table for good, it's time to stop dancing around one another, stop any distractions. Focus on themselves. Admittedly, they're both a bit drunk, but it still seems to be the right moment, considering that the tides are turning once again.

Steve looks adorably forlorn right now; Danny knows how that feels.

“Well, I'm bi,” he says softly. “But I actually think it doesn't matter. If you care for someone, it should be about the butterflies and wanting to sing all the time, not which gender the person is.”

Steve regards him: “You make it sound so easy,” he replies. “When did you know?”

“When I had a crush both on Bianca Hopkins _and_ her brother in ninth grade.” Danny flashes him a grin.

Steve laughs quietly: “Ever kiss a guy?”

“A few times during college. Fooled around, but nothing more. You?”

“No.”

“Really? Not even on the ship?”

“You shouldn't believe all those stories people are telling about lonely sailors.”

“Huh. Fair enough.”

They are quiet for some time before Steve heaves a breath: “What do we do now?”

Danny considers this: “I dunno,” he says, shrugging. “Maybe go out on a date?”

 

Which is what they do, a few days later. When Steve knocks on Danny's door to pick him up, he's actually nervous. But Danny beams at him as he lets him in, and Steve's so dazzled that he forgets about his unease for a moment. Until they're inside, to be precise, because he doesn't know the protocol. But Danny seems unfazed even though he usually is the one who worries about anything and everything, so Steve can't but ask him: “Aren't you scared?” he actually whispers.

Danny turns around and regards him with a small smile: “Yes,” he admits. “But I'm banking on your being smitten by my charming self.”

Steve can't but laugh a little at that: “Okay.”

“Steve,” Danny says, serious now, taking both his hands. “If you don't feel comfortable, we can always stop and go back to being friends.” It takes all he has not to falter while he's saying it, but if he had to, he'd do it again in a heartbeat. When it comes to Steve, his priorities are crystal clear.

“It might be awkward afterwards for a while,” he continues, “but... we'll get over that.”

“You think?”

“Haven't you ever watched a movie? As soon as the hero lands himself in mortal peril once more, all's forgiven. Now, I'm not saying that I'm looking forward to that, but let's be realistic: it _will_ happen again. Which, ironically, is also the reason why we're doing this.”

Steve sighs: “I hate to say it, but you're right.”

Danny smiles.

“You're lovely,” Steve says before he can stop himself.

“See?” Danny's smile widens. “And I didn't even turn on the charm yet.”

 

Turns out that neither of them wants to stop and go back. They go bowling and have a drink at a small bar afterwards, and when Steve drops Danny off, he walks him to the front door. It's a mild night, the air is balmy, and neither of them wants to actually end the evening.

“I had a really good time,” Steve says softly.

“Me too.”

“I'm glad we decided to continue being cops and spend even more time together.” He beams at Danny.

Danny regards him with so much affection that the aforementioned butterflies simply take over: “I'mma kiss you now, if that's alright,” Steve mutters.

“ _So_ alright,” Danny replies, and the kiss is marvellous.

 

Since they agreed on taking things slow, Steve drives home that night. Singing.

 

 

Mary laughs for a whole minute when Steve tells her on the phone that he is dating Danny.

“Finally,” she gasps once she's managed to pull herself together.

“Seriously?” Steve groans.

“You can't be surprised,” Mary retorts. “You two have practically been an item from day one! I knew as soon as I saw you with your surf boards-”

“Oh, come on.”

“- and all subsequent evidence pointed to the obvious. Even Aunt Deb was curious about you two.”

“Huh. Why'd you never tell me?”

“I didn't think I'd need to.”

“Okay. Anyway, so we decided not to continue with the restaurant.”

“Really? You're not retiring?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Turns out we didn't really see ourselves in the business after all. We're good at being cops. It's what we want to do.”

“Well, it all worked out anyway, did it?”

“I guess you could say so.” He can hear Mary's grin over the phone.

“But you'll still cook for us next time we're there, won't you?”

“Depends.”

“On what?”

“Whether or not you'll make fun of me.”

Mary just starts laughing again.

 

“Look at it that way,” Danny says, later that night as they're lying in the hammock in Steve's garden. “No one will be overly surprised because we kinda eased them in.”

Steve sighs: “Yeah, well, we did.”

They haven't told anyone else about their still new relationship, and it's all kinds of exciting to be keeping this to themselves for a while longer.

Steve doesn't want to dwell on his sister's reaction any longer, therefore he picks up Danny's hand, which is lying on his chest, and kisses it: “I'm happy, Danno,” he says softly, because he realized that he is, for the first time since he can remember. Not just content with the way things are going, but terrifyingly, butterflyingly, indeed-wanting-to-sing-all-day-because-all-the-stupid-songs-were-about-them-and-oh-so-true, happy. And while this is making the fear of losing his partner one day even bigger, it's also making his life so much more enjoyable. They have meanwhile taken the next few steps, and being intimate with a man is much less awkward or even uncomfortable than he'd have thought, on the contrary.

The first time they woke up naked together, they mapped their scars and agreed that it had been about time. And now Danny's body has become familiar and vice versa. It's wonderful to sleep wrapped around one another or shower together, and already, Steve doesn't want to miss these things ever again. Such as this, cuddling in the hammock; before, Steve often felt restless when he was at home and had nothing to do. With Danny, it's just awesome to do nothing. Well. Steve smiles. Doing nothing alone and doing nothing together is very different.

Danno now wriggles around until he can look at Steve: “I'm glad,” he says seriously with just a hint of a smile in his eyes, regarding Steve. “You deserve no less.”

“Neither do you.” Steve raises his hand and runs his fingers through the short hair just above Danny's ear. “I love you, Danno.”

Danny leans forward until their noses touch: “I love you more, Stevie.”

Steve groans, but doesn't protest because now Danny is kissing him.

“You happy too?” he can't but ask nevertheless, a little while later.

“Didn't you _hear_ me singing along to K.C. and the sunshine band earlier?” Danny shudders.

“Oh, that was you? I thought someone had stepped on a cat's tail. Ow!”

“You know you can't get out of this thing with me on top of you?”

“I don't think I _want_ out of this thing with you on top of me.”

“Idiot.”

“What are you gonna do, huh? Tickle me?”

“Tickling's for amateurs. I've got other means...”

“So? Bring it on!”

“Like this?”

“ _Oh!_ Alright...”

 

 

The End

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I'm not a Native Speaker, therefore I apologize for any mistakes.


End file.
